Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

[This article was published in 1948. For the full citation, see the end of the text.]

The Institute of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart (F.S.C.) was founded in 1821 by Father André Coindre, of the diocese of Lyon, France. Its constitution was modelled upon that of St. Ignatius, based upon the rule of St. Augustine. The object of the Congregation is the Christian education of boys in parochial and select schools, and in commercial colleges. In 1846, the brothers opened up in the United States, at Mobile, Alabama, a new field of labour for the institute. In 1872, the province of the United States extended its schools into Canada ; and in 1880, it transferred its novitiate from Indianapolis to Arthabaskaville, Quebec. The growth of the Congregation was here so rapid that the establishments in Canada were erected into a separate province in 1900.

In answer to the call of Pope Pius XI, the brothers have joined the mission field. About 1927, the province of Spain extended its activities into South America, where six schools have been established. A year later, the province of Arthabaska sent missionaries to the island of Madagascar, South Africa, to work among the natives; and six schools have been opened there. In 1929, the new province of St. Hyacinthe, which has been a subdivision of the province of Arthabaska since 1912, started mission work in the Sudan . The province of the United States chose Uganda for its mission field, while the French province has adopted Syria. With the college recently opened in Rome, Italy, the Congregation is now scattered in twelve different countries. The mother-house of the Congregation is at Renteria, Spain.

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. I, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 313.